The BEST Crockpot Potato Soup!

A couple months ago, in the midst of being a new mom and desperate for more quick & easy meals to prepare for dinner, I did what every female does when she wants answers... I posted a Facebook status. :) I asked for ladies to send me their favorite crockpot recipes (because when I said easy I meant easy, and we all know there's nothing easier than throwing-it-all-in-a-pot-and-letting-it-simmer!) I received nearly 50 replies (yay, Facebook!) And ended up trying almost all of them (some of them were duplicates - don't worry, I didn't cook 50 new meals!) We loved a lot of them and eat a few regularly. But the ONE recipe that I make pretty much every week (and look forward to eating every week, because it's seriously THAT good) is a simple, delicious potato soup.

This isn't an original recipe - I found it via this blog. But there are a few things I figured out while preparing it (nearly a dozen times) that I thought I would pass on to all of you! It's sooo great. I make it every Wednesday night at our house, because Josh doesn't get home until around 9:00pm after work/church and it's the perfect meal for those nights when we don't want to go to bed with a whole lot of hard-to-digest food in our tummies.

What you need:

30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns (I use Ore Ida)

(3) 14oz. cans of chicken broth

(1) can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1 pkg. cream cheese (NOT fat free, it won't melt!)

Prepare:

1) Combine everything (except the cream cheese) in a crockpot. Simmer on low for 6-8 hours. 2) About 1-2 hours before serving add room temperature cream cheese to pot. Stir in well. (This has required multiple attempts to get right - my best advice is to put the cream cheese in a bowl and laddle some soup out of the pot over it and stir together until it's nice and creamy) 3) Top with shredded cheese, bacon bits, green onions and we like to add a little bit of Tony Chachere's seasoning.

That's it! SO good!! Hope you all enjoy this easy and yummy meal!

Thanks to my friend Amber for the recommendation via Facebook.